‘You see drivers watching matches on laptops, people eating breakfast cereal, putting on make-up, shaving’

There’s not much gardaí from the Dublin Roads Policing Unit haven’t seen as they go about the business of trying to catch drivers breaking the law behind the wheel.
“In rush hour, you’ll see people in traffic watching matches on their tablets or laptops, people eating breakfast cereal, putting on their make-up, shaving,” says Insp Peter Woods. “These are all kinds of things that lead to distracted driving and can cause fatal collisions.”
One of his colleagues from the unit, Sgt Robert Griffin, has his own horror stories to tell. He says the last time he caught a drunk-driver, the motorist in question was not only drunk but could be seen downing a can of beer as he drove erratically. When he was eventually stopped, five other empty cans were found in the car as well as a tumbler of whiskey.
“He’d been out to a party,” says Sgt Griffin of festivities that he continued as he drove. “I was nearly wondering if it was a hospital he needed, rather than the breathalyser.”
Insp Woods and Sgt Griffin were speaking to The Irish Times on the Naas Road, Co Dublin, while working on Operation Iompair. It is a first for Irish roads policing in that patrolling is done by gardaí in a truck.
The use of an unmarked truck comes as more motorists are now expertly shielding their offending, usually using their phones. They are simply holding their phone “down by the knees” and next to the driver’s door.
It means even if gardaí are passing in a car, and they strongly suspect the driver is holding a phone, they cannot stop that motorist. The law says they must see the phone being held.
But by patrolling in a truck, the height advantage means gardaí can see right down into any car. They are also on the same level as truck drivers and bus drivers and able to see any road traffic offences they are committing.
The idea of using trucks was copied from the Belgian police, with Insp Woods having seen them in operation during a visit to that country. Though the truck patrols have only been rolled out in the Republic in recent weeks, the results have been significant.
Up to 40 offenders are being caught every time the truck is taken out, compared to a handful of lawbreaking drivers being caught during conventional tours in Garda cars.
So far three operations have been conducted in the truck – or HGV tractor unit – with over 100 drivers detected breaking the law. Most of those crimes have been the use of a mobile phone.
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The truck is driven by a Garda member, accompanied by a colleague in the cab acting as “observer”. If a driver is spotted using a phone, or committing any other breaches of road traffic law, a description of the vehicle, motorist and offence is radioed to other gardaí in vehicles following at a distance.
The observer “tries to make it obvious to the driver they’ve been caught”, often by illuminating the concealed blue lights on the truck. It means when Sgt Griffin and his colleagues appear behind those drivers in their Garda vehicles, and bring them to a stop to issue a ticket, most are resigned to the situation.
“They are surprised,” he said of drivers being caught by gardaí in a truck. “‘When did you get that?’ is often the question. And then you’ll get the typical comment, ‘have you nothing better to do with your time?’ But with [the level of] road deaths, no we don’t have better things to do, we are focusing on this.”
Though the patrols are in their infancy, Insp Woods is seeing more trucks being introduced and permanently based in each region. Though initially a Dublin-based initiative, the truck patrols have already extended into parts of Kildare and Louth is next, backed by gardaí in unmarked vehicles, Garda motorbikes and, very soon, unmarked Garda motorbikes, which will be another new concept for roads policing.